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Andre Blaze of Orange has been watching the rollout of Obamacare with a growing sense of dread.

As a self-employed financial services marketing consultant, Blaze has bought his own health insurance for the last 30 years. The irony now, he said, is that the Affordable Care Act won’t bring him much relief.

“Because of all of the new benefits that are being added on I’m not going to be able to afford the new affordable health care,” Blaze said.

For years, Blaze has opted for a high-deductible health plan to save money on monthly premium costs.

He pays for the first few thousands of dollars of medical care expenses out of pocket to meet his deductible. He doesn’t get coverage for certain benefits, but that leaves him with a lower monthly premium.

“I’ll pay all of it out of pocket,” he said. “I go to the doctor just to get check ups and things like that.”

Despite promises by President Obama that people can keep their insurance once the new federal health care law is in full effect in January, millions of people like Blaze won’t have that option. That’s because they’ve chosen “bare bones” plans that don’t meet the Affordable Care Act benefit standards.

Blaze said while he’ll have to upgrade his insurance under the new law, and likely pay more for it, he will not get financial help to make the change. He makes too much money, he said, to qualify for government tax subsidies to buy coverage.

Blaze is one of approximately 2 million Californians who have individual health plans today that won’t cut it.

“Right now we’re dealing with the transition from the old system to the new system and it will be messy,” said Larry Levitt, senior vice president with the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan policy think tank closely following the Affordable Care Act.

Levitt said the switch will be hard because many people who have bought bare bones insurance plans thought they’d be able to keep them. That’s what they heard repeatedly from Obama during his campaign to get the new health care law passed. However, Levitt clarified, the president was speaking to the majority of people with insurance who get coverage from their employer.

“Presidential speeches don’t tend to come with multiple footnotes,” he said. “The general idea was that most people won’t see significant change in their coverage.”

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Ross Pendergraft, chairman of the Valley Industry & Commerce Association’s health care committee, said that there probably won’t be much change in employer-provided coverage.

“We’re not seeing a lot of companies drop their coverage. For the most part employers are pretty much keeping their coverage the same,” he said.

They continue to manage care cost as they have done in the past by reducing benefits or putting more of the financial burden on employees, said Pendergraft, who is also executive vice president and employee benefits practice leader at USI Insurance Services of Southern California.

The exchanges will offer broader coverage than what is available now.

“Close to 80 percent of the individual plans written today do not have maternity coverage and they did that for obvious reasons, to keep the price down. Under health care reform, maternity coverage is mandatory, it has to be in the plan and drug prescriptions have to be in the plan,” he said.

The Affordable Care Act requires all insurance policies to cover 10 benefits, including hospitalizations, maternity care and prescription drugs. The idea is to protect people with a high deductible plan, like Andre Blaze, from financial calamity, said Micah Weinberg, senior policy advisor for the Bay Area Council, a business-backed advocacy group.

“A lot of what the Affordable Care Act does is prevent moments of terror, panic, bankruptcy that we didn’t anticipate were even going to happen,” said Weinberg.

Obamacare will accomplish this, he said, by making insurers pick up at least 60 percent of medical costs. The law also caps out-of-pocket spending for individuals to around $6,400 per year.

In addition, some people can get help if they buy a plan on the newly formed health care marketplaces or exchanges.

This could be an option for Suzanne Hayden, who runs TSR Records Inc. in the Los Angeles area with her husband. For the last 25 years she’s bought insurance for her family on the individual market. Now she’s looking into buying her policy on the new Covered California exchange.

“Overall rates look better than what we’re paying,” she said. “We could save about $200 a month.”

Currently, Hayden, 60, said to get insurance for both herself and her husband she pays a $600 monthly premium. They also have a $6,500 deductible. She said since she has to pay out-of-pocket for care until she meets her deductible she’s been reluctant to go the doctor.

Under the new federal health care law, though, some preventive services — such as mammograms — are free. She said that’s much better than the $100 copay she would have had for a mammogram before Obamacare.

“I had put it off for a couple years,” she said. “But knowing I wouldn’t have to pay a copay made me want to go in.”

One thing Hayden was not aware of is the fact that she’ll need to change her current policy to meet the Affordable Care Act standards. Since by using the exchange she might qualify for a subsidy to offset her costs, she said for now she’s not too concerned.

But for many people, subsidies will be out of reach. Take, for example, those 2 million Californians who buy insurance on their own. Only about a third of them will qualify for tax subsidies.

Sarah Aquino, a broker with Integrated Benefits and Insurance Services, Inc. in Sacramento, said those who don’t qualify for a subsidy will likely see their health insurance premiums increase. Many of her clients have been surprised to get this news.

To qualify for a tax subsidy, an individual has to make less than $46,000 a year, or 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.

Most of Aquino’s clients make more than that, and she says it’s important for people to learn what their options are. Since almost everyone has to have insurance or pay a fee come January, Aquino said if insurance is going to be more expensive, people will have a choice to make.

“The penalty for the individual mandate is $95 or one percent of your income,” she said. “So the question is, will people who are healthy and don’t qualify for a subsidy come into the system?”

For Blaze, it’s a question he’s already answered. The 58-year-old said his current insurance strategy has worked because he’s been healthy. Now, he’s worried if policies are too expensive under Obamacare, he might end up uninsured and sick.

“The older I get I know it’s going to happen,” he said. “I’m hoping to God that I don’t have any major illnesses until I get Medicare.”